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Jeremy McCarter

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W hen Joanne Woodward was picking shows to produce this summer, Our Town was an easy choice. Thornton Wilder's play about life and death in turn-of-the-century Grover's Corners, N.H., is one of the most popular works in American theater. What's more, Woodward's husband wanted to play the central, narrating role of the Stage Manager -- no small consideration when he's Paul Newman. Most importantly, Wilder's play seemed uniquely relevant. "The September 11 tragedy forced us all to look at the world in a different way," Woodward stated this spring. It "reminds us all of the importance of living every moment." After a standing-room-only run at Woodward's Westport Country Theater in Connecticut, the production opened Dec. 4 on Broadway, where it has nearly sold out again. The carpe-diem message of Our Town is indeed timely in these uncertain days, but it's hardly new to find it so. When the play premiered in 1938, a New York critic cited its appeal in "our present turmoil." Its relevance...